Proceedings of 30th International Business Research Conference
20 - 22 April 2015, Flora Grand Hotel, Dubai, UAE, ISBN: 978-1-922069-74-0
Impact of Pre-Shopping Activities on Purchase Decisions
at the Point of Sale
Silvia Bellini and Maria Grazia Cardinali*
Over the past few years, retailers and manufacturers alike are
increasing their attention and resources allocated to the practice of
shopper marketing with the aim to influence consumers “in shopping
mode”, when they are prepared to make a choice, along and beyond
the entire path-to-purchase. Environmental changes, specifically the
economic crisis and the growing penetration of digital technologies,
have produced significant changes in shopping habits designed to
gradually reduced the effectiveness of in-store marketing levers in
influencing shopping behaviour. A new scenario seems to be opening
up where more planning and preparation for shopping is carried out
before the customer enter the store. Our work intends to explore the
relationship between pre-trip activities and shopping behaviour instore in order to understand if marketing levers could still influence
consumers’ decisions in-store or, on the contrary, a more prepared
consumer limit the effectiveness of shopper marketing by reducing
impulse buying.
Field of Research: Marketing (Retailing)
1. Introduction
Over the past few years, retailers and manufacturers alike are increasing their
attention and resources allocated to the practice of shopper marketing with the aim to
influence consumers “in shopping mode”, when they are prepared to make a choice,
along and beyond the entire path-to-purchase. This practice, knows as “Shopper
marketing” (Shankar, 2011), is regarded as a priority by both retailers and
manufacturers around the world for its ability to influence shoppers decisions in store.
According to a recent market research (Popai, 2012), in Italy at least two out of three
purchase decisions are made in store and this data would strengthen the growing
strategic importance of the point of sale and all those levers which are operated in
store to influence and affect the buying behavior of the consumer.
In the last decade, industrial companies have gradually shifted their strategic focus
from a traditional marketing approach, oriented to create awareness using pull and
push strategies, to a shopper marketing approach, oriented to create awareness by
influence triggers in the shopping cycle in the belief that in-store marketing levers are
more effective than the traditional ones (communication out of store). At the same
time, grocery retailers have invested increasing marketing resources in in-store
promotions with the aim to influence the buying behavior in the store.
Recent environmental changes, specifically the economic crisis and the growing
penetration of digital technologies, have produced significant changes in shopping
habits designed to create a new scenario for shopper marketing. Thanks to
technologies, consumers are now able to collect information out-of-store, carrying out
*
Silvia Bellini, Department of Economics, University of Parma – ITALY – email: silvia.bellini@unipr.it
Maria Grazia Cardinali, Department of Economics, University of Parma – ITALY – email:
mariagrazia.cardinali@unipr.it
Proceedings of 30th International Business Research Conference
20 - 22 April 2015, Flora Grand Hotel, Dubai, UAE, ISBN: 978-1-922069-74-0
several and various pre-trip activities, such as comparison of pricing, promotions and
range among different retailers. Consumers, thus, enter the store much more
prepared and they are able to make shopping quickly, only looking for products they
had planned to buy, guided by a digital shopping list, digital coupons or printed
customized promotions.
In this new context, important questions are arising: what is the relationship between
pre-shopping behavior and in-store shopping behavior? How this relationship varies
among store formats? Can in-store marketing levers still influence consumers as in
the past or their new planning attitudes limit the impact of in-store shopper
marketing? These questions are relevant both from an academic viewpoint, as
emerged from the literature described below, as well as from a managerial one. On
this latter point, the answer can guide decisions as to how to allocate marketing
budget to out-of-store versus in-store marketing activities, as well as how to
differentiate these activities among store formats.
2. Literature Review
Shopper marketing has been studied along two perspectives: some contributions
have assumed a broad perspective by studying shopper marketing as a whole and in
a comprehensive way (GMA/Delloitte 2007, Oxford Strategic Marketing 2008, Harris
2010, Retail Commission on Shopper Marketing 2010, Shankar 2011, Shankar et al.
2011), while others authors have assumed a narrow perspective focusing on one or
few specific aspects included in it (Kahn and Schmittlein 1989, Chandon et al. 2002,
Inman et al. 2004, Sinha and Uniyal 2005, Larson et al. 2005 and 2006, Neff 2008,
Chandon et al. 2007, 2009, Inman et al. 2009, Dulsrud and Jacobsen 2009, Suher
and Sorensen 2010, ECR Europe 2011, Bell et al. 2011).
In our work, we assume the definition given by Shankar et al. (2011) who defined
shopper marketing as “the planning and execution of all marketing activities that
influence a shopper along, and beyond, the entire path-to-purchase, from the point at
which the motivation to shop first emerges through to purchase, consumption,
repurchase, and recommendation”. In other words, shopper marketing differs from
traditional marketing because it is recognizes the need to understand, activate and
engage with consumers when they are in the role of shopper.
Several studies explored the relative influence of in-store and out-of-store shopper
marketing activities on purchase showing the high degree of decision-marketing in
store (Deloitte Research 2007, Inman et al 2009, GMA 2010, Popai, 2012).
Decisions made in-store have been defined in literature as “impulse buying” (Beatty
and Ferrel, 1998), that are a sudden and immediate purchases with no pre-shopping
intentions either to buy a specific product category or to fulfill a specific buying task.
Impulse buying do not have to be confused with unplanned buying: the first is a spurof-the-moment purchase with little thought while the latter is buying since the shopper
forgot to put an item on her list. Thus, according to this definition, in our work we
consider “impulse buying” as purchases decided in-store and “planning buying” as
purchases decided out-of-store, during pre-trip activities in the early steps of the
shopping cycle (motivation to shop, search, evaluation and category/item/brand
selection).
Shopper marketing activities could influence all the shopping cycle, thus pre-trip
activities and shopping behavior in-store. While this latter area has been studied in
literature during the past years, the first one has been less explored because it has
known a development only recently due to environmental changes.
Proceedings of 30th International Business Research Conference
20 - 22 April 2015, Flora Grand Hotel, Dubai, UAE, ISBN: 978-1-922069-74-0
In particular, changes in economy and technology have highlighted the importance of
pre-trip activities and the potential role of shopper marketing in influencing them. On
one hand, due to the global economic downturn and the associated diminished
disposable income, more shoppers are now searching more information before enter
a store and evaluating more alternative before to decide where and what to shop. On
the other hand, the deep penetration of technological developments such as digital
media and mobile devices among the population has opened up new opportunities to
influence shopper attitudes and behavior (Shankar and Balasubramanian, 2009),
particularly in the retail environment (Shankar et al. 2010).
Environmental changes have opened up a new scenario for shopper marketing: as
emerged from the recent literature (Shankar, 2014), shopper marketing is today
evolving, shifting from a first phase (Shopper Marketing 1.0), addressed interesting
issues, primarily relating to in-store marketing, to a second phase (Shopper
Marketing 2.0) that will significantly extend to out-of-store marketing, including online
and mobile marketing, resulting in an integrated practice.
In this new environment, to formulate and execute effective shopper marketing
strategies, managers need to better understand the complete picture of how online,
offline, mobile and in-store marketing influence shoppers in the path-to-purchaseand-beyond cycle. As suggested by Shankar et al. (2011), there is a need to evolve
from focusing on in-store to focusing on all stages in the shopping cycle.
3. Research Aims and Methodology
Starting from research avenues emerged in recent literature, our work intends to
explore the relationship between pre-shopping behaviour and shopping behaviour instore, with the aim to understand how pre-trip activities have changed in the new
market scenario and how they have influenced the in-store shopping behaviour.
Specifically, our work intends to verify the following hypotheses:
H1 – Pre-trip activities have increased in importance and diffusion
H2 – Pre-trip activities vary among store formats
H3 – Pre-trip activities influence shopping behaviour by increasing planning buying in
store, hence reducing impulse buying
H4 – A profile of shopper much oriented to preparation and planning of grocery
purchases is emerging
In order to verify these hypotheses, we conducted a survey of 1050 shoppers based
on a structured questionnaire. The research focused on three Italian grocery retailers
operating in different store formats (EDLP supermarket, hi-low supermarket and
hypermarket).
4. Findings and Discussion
In order to verify our first hypothesis, we have analysed how consumers carry out
pre-trip activities before grocery purchases, exploring the amount of time devoted to
a list of pre-trip activities as well as the number of diverse activities carried out. First,
our research shows the growing importance of the searching information process
out-of-store: 65 percent of consumers interviewed search information out-of-store
while only 35 percent of them search information in-store. Secondly, the preparatory
activities is not limited to the preparation of a traditional shopping list, but regard
several activities: in particular, before choosing the store in which making their
grocery purchases, consumers search information about pricing and promotion (48
percent of interviewed done this activity always or often), compare flyers on line (92
Proceedings of 30th International Business Research Conference
20 - 22 April 2015, Flora Grand Hotel, Dubai, UAE, ISBN: 978-1-922069-74-0
percent) as well as off line (22 percent), compare retailers visiting their web site (22
percent) or aggregator on line (20 percent), and prepare a written shopping list (46
percent). In sum, pre-trip activities have increased in importance and diffusion,
confirming our first hypothesis.
However, are these pre-trip activities carried out in the same way among store
formats?
In order to answer this question, and verify our second hypothesis, we have
constructed an index that synthetizes all the pre-trip activities carried out before
shopping (Table 1). The index, called “preparatory index”, includes all the pre-trip
activities identified above and can range from zero (if consumers do not make any
preparatory activity) to 100 (if consumers make all the activities).
Table 1: Preparatory Index Composition
Pre-trip activities
Collection of information on prices and
promotions (on and off line)
Consultation leaflets (print and digital)
Comparison retailers (on and off line)
Written Shopping list
Total pre-trip activities
Weight
(%)
20
20
20
20
100
The results show a higher “preparatory index” in the hypermarket than in the other
store formats analyzed (Table 2) confirming our second hypothesis according to
which pre-trip activities vary among store formats depending on their strategic
positioning. The hypermarket, for its characteristics concerning range (wide and
deep), pricing strategies (high intensity promotion), location (much time to reach the
store), require a more intense pre-trip activities compared to the other store formats
where the shopping can be simpler and more “time saving”.
Table 2 – Preparatory index by store formats
Store formats
Hypermarket
Supermarket Hi-Lo
Supermarket EDLP
Preparatory
index
30,5
27,1
20,4
Considering these findings, it become interesting to understand if a shopper that
systematically makes pre-trip activities before shopping is also a more “planned
shopper” that tends to use, more than ever, a shopping list (mental or written) as a
guide in the store looking for those products and those brands which had planned to
purchase.
In order to understand the influence of pre-trip activities on the balance between
planning and impulse buying orientation, testing our third hypothesis, we explored the
degree of planning of grocery purchases.
Our research shows that the percentage of consumers who bought products they
have planned before is higher than the percentage of those who made “impulse
buying”: almost half of the shoppers interviewed has bought a products they had
Proceedings of 30th International Business Research Conference
20 - 22 April 2015, Flora Grand Hotel, Dubai, UAE, ISBN: 978-1-922069-74-0
planned before, because it was a necessary product or because he knew that it was
in promotion; on the other hand, impulse buying are 26 percent (Table 3).
Table 3 – The degree of planning of grocery purchases
Degree of planning
Frequency
(%)
Planned purchase of product (I need it)
42%
Planned purchase of brand (not of product)
9%
Planned purchase of category (not of product)
17%
Planned purchase of product because promoted
6%
Not planned, but purchased because promoted 9%
(impulse buying influenced by promotion)
Not planned (impulse buying)
17%
These results confirm our third hypothesis: a more prepared and aware consumer,
who devotes much time to search for information (about prices, products, brands)
out-of-store, shows a more planning behavior, which means that he decides to buy
the products and categories of which he had planned the purchase.
In order to have an indicator for each customer about his degree of impulse buying,
we have constructed the “impulse buying index” which can range from zero (planned
purchase of product) to 100 (not planned), as shown in Table 4.
Finally, it become interesting to understand if a planning buying orientation is more
widespread than impulse buying orientation. For this purpose, we conducted a
cluster analysis taking into consideration the variables concerning with the
preparatory activities out-of-store and the shopping behaviour in-store. Specifically,
we have considered the following variables: the preparatory index (as shown in Table
1), the index of impulse buying (as shown in Table 4), the time spent in front of the
display (in second) and the share of wallet (as an indicator of knowledge of the
store).
Table 4 – Impulse buying index composition
Degree of impulse
Not planned (impulse buying)
Not planned, but purchased because promoted
(impulse buying influenced by promotion)
Planned purchase of product because promoted
Planned purchase of category (not of product)
Planned purchase of brand (not of product)
Planned purchase of product (I need it)
Index
100
80
60
40
20
0
The cluster analysis revealed three segments of shoppers which differ for the effort
put in pre-trip activities, time in front of display, impulse/planned purchase ratio and
share of wallet (Table 5).
Proceedings of 30th International Business Research Conference
20 - 22 April 2015, Flora Grand Hotel, Dubai, UAE, ISBN: 978-1-922069-74-0
Table 5 – Cluster analysis output
Variables
Preparatory index
Index of impulse purchases
Time in front of display
(second)
Share of wallet (%)
Cluster 1
29,35
28,45
117,1
Cluster 2
28,53
11,47
20,97
Cluster 3
26,53
89,48
23,15
62
57
58
The first cluster consists of 9 percent of consumers who can be defined as “Working
shoppers” for their high engagement in all pre-trip activities (higher preparatory
index) and long time spent in front of the display. These professional shoppers
indulge in some impulse buying – possibly driving their confidence from the amount
of preparatory work they do. The second cluster consists of 62 percent of consumers
who can be labelled as “Grab & Go Shoppers” for their fastest in-store shopping
process. Consequently, their impulse buying is reduced to a minimum. Finally, the
third cluster consists of 29 percent of consumers, the “Fast impulse shoppers”, driven
by impulse buying and little influenced by pre-trip activities.
These results confirm our last hypothesis: a profile of shopper much oriented to
preparation and planning of grocery purchases is emerging.
4. Conclusions and Implications
Our research finds that pre-trip activities have increased in importance and diffusion,
enabled by the growing penetration of new technologies and stimulated by a change
in shopping behavior due to the economic crisis. The preparatory activities are
common and span a variety of online and offline tasks and customers see these
activities as having an influence on their choice of store, category and brands. Instore behavior seems to be more directed by pre-trip activities than generally
assumed. The increasing pre-trip activities, in fact, has influenced shopping behavior
in-store by reducing impulse buying and increasing planning purchases.
Given these findings, a question is become of paramount importance: what about the
effectiveness of marketing levers in influencing shopping behavior? Can in-store
marketing still influence consumers as in the past or their new planning attitudes limit
the impact and the effectiveness of in-store shopper marketing levers? This question
is of paramount importance for managers in order to decide how to allocate
marketing budget to out-of-store versus in-store marketing activities, how to
differentiate these activities among store formats and, finally, how to improve
effective and efficient in managing their products.
In recent years, the resources allocated to price promotions have increased as well
as the share of products sold in promotion. Increasing in price promotions has been
accompanied by an increase in trade marketing resources designed to support instore marketing activities. Until today, the flyer has been the most important means to
influence consumers’ decisions in-store, while the point of sale has been the main
medium of communication of promotional initiatives, engaging a growing share of
trade marketing resources.
Today the diminishing returns in promotions and the risk that planning buying could
reduce in-store marketing levers effectiveness raise new concerns for managers who
are wondering if it would be better to invest more resources out-of-store using a
multiple media mix (web, mobile, social, etc.) reducing investments in the point of
sale. Despite changes in shopping behavior, the point of sale will continue to have an
Proceedings of 30th International Business Research Conference
20 - 22 April 2015, Flora Grand Hotel, Dubai, UAE, ISBN: 978-1-922069-74-0
important role in influencing consumers’ decisions, attracting therefore investments
from both retailers and manufacturers. As well as retailers will continue to need
industrial contributions for managing in-store activities and promotions,
manufacturers could not simply affect and change behavior through out-of-store
marketing levers giving up in-store activities.
The out-of-store influence of shoppers is potentially quite substantial, and marketers
have to look for new ways to influence shoppers perceptions early in shopping cycle,
without diminish the role of the point of sale and the role of in-store marketing levers.
As pointed out by Shankar et al. (2011), a new scenario is opened up for shopper
marketing: as technology enables shoppers to increasingly use and engage with
multiple channels, looking for consistent information even during pre-trip activities,
retailers may look for innovate shopper marketing in-store in order to influence
decisions of consumers who are much more conscious and prepared that in the past,
thanks to the amount of information they have collected out-of-store, during pre-trip
activities.
Today retailers have growing opportunities to influence shopper decisions in store
using technology (such as RFID, mobile technology, TV networks, virtual reality), instore promotional instruments, innovations in aisle-placements and shelf-space
management. In particular, new technologies are opening a new phase for
promotions in-store in which shoppers will have a more active role: over to classical
promotions, addressed to all customers and massively communicated in-store
(through display and layout), retailers can implement customized promotions,
communicated directly to shopper through mobile devices, which will have in the
future an increasingly active role in the consumers choice.
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